My estimated comp (comments & suggestions please)

[Angarin]

Hey everybody. My first post here in the computer section of mmo-champ forums. I've been aiming to get a new computer for almost a year now and I've been upgraded my current one but I'm kind of done. I'm a huge planetside fan and psnext is coming out in the next year or so and I want to run it full settings.

I'll address my current computer

intel duo core 1.6ghz

2gb ram (not sure manufacter)

raedon 4550 512mb video ram

onboard sound

320gb HDD (not sure manufacter)

I bought this computer from dell but I replaced the video card, inserted a new gb of ram and upgraded to win7 ultimate. Works fine for running wow in 25m raiding on low-mid settings but I want more.



Heres my aimed computer. If you notice I picked 100% of the items out from mmo-champ build of the month. I read the reviews for 95% of the items and picked out the good & cheaper ones.

Monitor - ASUS VE276Q 27-Inch - $313
Keyboard - Razer BlackWidow (Backlit)- $75 ($120)

Mouse - Razer Naga (Buttons on the Side) - $69

Speakers - Logitech S220 2.1 Speaker System - $28

Case - NZXT GAMMA Classic - $35

Power Supply - Corsair 650TX V2 - $80

CPU - AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Thuban $160

Heatsink - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus - $30

Motherboard - GIGABYTE GA-770T-USB3 AM3 - $89

Memory/RAM - 4GB G.Skill Ripjaws F3 4GB 12800 DDR3 - $62

Graphics Card - XFX 5770 - $105

HDD - Western Digital Caviar Blue WD10EALX 1TB 7200 RPM $65

DVD/Blu-ray - Lite-On LightScribe 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $25


$1181 total (non-shipping)

$1381 total (estimated shipping)




Most of the items will be bought from amazon.com new (not used...hell no). And a couple from newegg. Newegg has always treated me right so I'm comfortable with them


The games I plan to play on this new system

WoW of course
Battlefield 3 (when its released)
Alot of valve games (source engine specifically)
Trackmania but that runs fine on my system
Guild wars 2
Borderlands
Diablo 3
Spore (for some reason this game rips my computer apart...not sure why)
Rift possibly
SW:TOR (mmo yes)
Elder scrolls 5: skyrim

Thats just a small list of the ones I will focus on completing 90% of (the ones that can be beat...mmos obviously cant)


So please lend me your aid in suggestions. Comments...something wrong? Which games will rip apart this new setup? If so how can I fix it?


My estimated budget is around 1.5k...I really dont want to reach to 2k but I will if I need to. I only plan on playing 1 monitor but I have 1-2 monitors I can use for off screen web surfing & additional multi tasking. I would really like an additional monitor for this purpose. I'm not aiming to get a full cinema feel into gaming just yet, at least for pc

[Xuvial]

Hmmmm no. That build is way outdated.

Keep your monitor, case, speakers, etc, but base your core build around this:

Motherboard: Asus P8P67
Processor: Intel i5 2500k
CPU Cooler: CoolerMaster Hyper 212
RAM: G.Skill Sniper Low Voltage 8GB
Hard Drive: Samsung Spinpoint F3
Graphics Card: MSI GTX 560 Ti Twin Frozr

You can cut that RAM down to 4gb if you like.

Reason I suggest GTX560 is because I saw Battlefield 3 in there. An HD5770 just won't cut it, it'll already struggle with half those games mentioned at 1080p (yes your monitor is 1080p) and a Phenom II x6 is pathetic for gaming compared to i5 2500k.

[Wrata]

Tbh in my expirience from last few years Nvidia+Intel is better for games. AMD has raw power which is good when you are working with graphic, movie editing and such stuff. I also upgraded my PC few days back and it took me hours to pick right setup and here is what i got:

Ram - CORSAIR 8GB KIT DDR3 1866MHz CL9 Vengeance XMP - 120$ - 4GB is too low for today and 6GB won't be in working in dual channel. Also 1866 i maximum that you can utilize today.
CPU - INTEL Core i5-2500K - 225$ - one of the best CPUs that are out
GPU - GIGABYTE N560SO-1GI Super Overclock - 268$ - GTX560=new 8800 and with even better with SOC version
PS - CORSAIR AX850 - 183$ - 80Gold Plus certification will save you some electricity
MB - ASUS SABERTOOTH P67 (rev 3.0) - 220$ - top MB for Sandy Bridge
Case - Lancool K62 - Black - 110$ - i like the design+no tools solution
Heatsink - Thermalright Archon Ultimate CPU Cooler - Full Retail Kit - 80$ - as of January 2011 it was N1 heatsink
HDD - SEAGATE SV35.5 2000GB - 154$ - HDD just for games+data, have OS on other one. Everybody told me to buy SSD for system but they are still pretty expensive

Before i bought any of above i consulted with lot of ppl which work with PC's everyday. Guy which work in Czech IBM recommended to wait for Z68 Chipset which will give extra graphic power but i didn't wanna wait till it will be released which should be right around the corner(Q2/2011)

Heatsink, case and PS will be used in next upgrade which will come in like 2 years or so. Didn't bother to count in DVD coz they are pretty cheap. As for monitor i got 23" DELL UltraSharp U2311H few months back and i am pretty happy about it.

As i was checking into prices on newegg i found that they didn't have my hdd and heatsink listed so you may wanna look into that closely.
I hope it will be any help.

[Xuvial]

PS - CORSAIR AX850 - 183$ - 80Gold Plus certification will save you some electricity

Hope you're planning to SLI with that.

[Wrata]

Hope you're planning to SLI with that.

Not at this moment. Maybe when time to upgrade will come i will just buy new GPU and save some money

[Repeant]

Angarin
You really don't need new mouse,keyboard, ect unless they are totally falling apart, You can get some really nice cases from 80-150 bucks that can solve almost any heating issues you may have unless you overclock.

If you are going for 6 cores make sure that your motherboard can support that many, a lot still only support quad core not tri-core (6 core).
Make sure your Ram is over 4G, 8G is a safe number if you only go to 4 you will be fine for now but you always have to think ahead when working with computers. You may want to bump up your power supply to 700-800 area in case you want to add another video card or upgrade down the line. Otherwise nothing seems to stick out for me

I have a build that I just finished for my next PC hopefully I will have enough cash for it in 2 months.
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
ASUS Crosshair IV Formula Motherboard - AMD 890FX
Patriot PX34G1600LL Viper Xtreme Desktop Memory Module (8-9-8-24)
Geforce GTX560 Overclocked (same as Wrata, I wanted the GTX590 way to expensive though)
AMD HDE00ZFBGRBOX Phenom II 1100T
WD VelociRaptor 300GB Hard Drive WD3000HLFS - 10K RPM
Creative Labs SB X-FI Titanium Fatal1ty Champ PCIe Sound Card
LG CH10LS20 10x Internal Blu-Ray Combo Drive
Power supply Antec 750W
Cooler Master RC-932-KKN5-GP HAF 932 Advance Full Tower Case

Total cost looks to be about $1600-1700

[Wries]

Before i bought any of above i consulted with lot of ppl which work with PC's everyday. Guy which work in Czech IBM recommended to wait for Z68 Chipset which will give extra graphic power but i didn't wanna wait till it will be released which should be right around the corner(Q2/2011)

Well contrary to popular misguided belief it does not boost your graphics card with the Intel IGP, it just makes you able to use the IGP if you for example want to make use of QuickSync (which atm translates to quick H.264 encoding at the cost of quality) while having a dedicated GPU on top.

If I bought a Sandy Bridge system today I'd still opt for P67 due to the price difference.

[Doomsin]

hmmmm no. That build is way outdated.

Keep your monitor, case, speakers, etc, but base your core build around this:

motherboard: asus p8p67
processor: intel i5 2500k
cpu cooler: coolermaster hyper 212
ram: g.skill sniper low voltage 8gb
hard drive: samsung spinpoint f3
graphics card: msi gtx 560 ti twin frozr

you can cut that ram down to 4gb if you like.

Reason i suggest gtx560 is because i saw battlefield 3 in there. An hd5770 just won't cut it, it'll already struggle with half those games mentioned at 1080p (yes your monitor is 1080p) and a phenom ii x6 is pathetic for gaming compared to i5 2500k.

this! Do this!

---------- Post added 2011-05-12 at 10:04 AM ----------

Can I also ask why you're going for a 27 inch monitor? You'll need to be 3 feet away to see everything you need to see in WoW :S I have a 24" (Samsung 2442BW) and I sometimes think it's too big.
Samsung Syncmaster 22" 120Hz is the way forward... my brother got one for xmas and it looks so much more solid and smooth than mine, it's nuts.

[Xuvial]

Samsung Syncmaster 22" 120Hz is the way forward

Aww this makes me feel great about my choice <3
I'll admit that gaming on a 120hz = awesome experience. But you need a setup that can constantly push 90-120fps so you can actually feel the smoothness.

[Angarin]

this! Do this!

---------- Post added 2011-05-12 at 10:04 AM ----------

Can I also ask why you're going for a 27 inch monitor? You'll need to be 3 feet away to see everything you need to see in WoW :S I have a 24" (Samsung 2442BW) and I sometimes think it's too big.
Samsung Syncmaster 22" 120Hz is the way forward... my brother got one for xmas and it looks so much more solid and smooth than mine, it's nuts.

I aimed at not just making the pc work for the monitor but my 360 & ps3. I will have to get a special hdmi switcher but I'll make it happen regardless. Besides I always prefer to play on a bigger screen. My desk is about 2 feet away from my face but I feel like I could be a bit further away for comfort. I mean I used a projector on my computer last summer which was amazing. Wasn't mind sadly but it was pretty sweet

So how much is this going to run me after this upgrades xuvial? I stated my budget I want to stay around 1500$ after shipping. Also can you explain why I need a motherboard that can handle such? I always thought motherboards served the purpose of only fitting correct hardware slots such as memory, cpu & gpu.

[TanAxys]

ooc, are you trying to spend all $1500?

It's pretty easy to build a killer PC for less than $1k USD now-a-days.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboB...t=Combo.638283

add a video card of choice and win 7 oem

[ispano]

Geh! A 27" monitor running 1920x1080? Seems more like a TV to me, a proper monitor should be closer to 2560x1440 at that size.

[iSythe]

I aimed at not just making the pc work for the monitor but my 360 & ps3. I will have to get a special hdmi switcher but I'll make it happen regardless. Besides I always prefer to play on a bigger screen. My desk is about 2 feet away from my face but I feel like I could be a bit further away for comfort. I mean I used a projector on my computer last summer which was amazing. Wasn't mind sadly but it was pretty sweet

So how much is this going to run me after this upgrades xuvial? I stated my budget I want to stay around 1500$ after shipping. Also can you explain why I need a motherboard that can handle such? I always thought motherboards served the purpose of only fitting correct hardware slots such as memory, cpu & gpu.

Just doing a quick estimate in my head, I'm pretty sure the changes xuvial put there and the peripherals you want to get, everything comes to around $1500, so you will be fine.

[Repeant]

I aimed at not just making the pc work for the monitor but my 360 & ps3. I will have to get a special hdmi switcher but I'll make it happen regardless. Besides I always prefer to play on a bigger screen. My desk is about 2 feet away from my face but I feel like I could be a bit further away for comfort. I mean I used a projector on my computer last summer which was amazing. Wasn't mind sadly but it was pretty sweet

So how much is this going to run me after this upgrades xuvial? I stated my budget I want to stay around 1500$ after shipping. Also can you explain why I need a motherboard that can handle such? I always thought motherboards served the purpose of only fitting correct hardware slots such as memory, cpu & gpu.

Well it was me that said that you need to check your Motherboard, but although you are partly correct that a motherboard dose mainly provide the interface for hardware it also has certain software built into it such as the BIOS. But the main reason you have to check is to make sure that your Motherboard supports the type of memory of your CPU and the socket size that the CPU's actually connect with the hardware. All that aside I just checked out your motherboard and your fine it supports your tri-cores (nice choice by the way on CPU I prefer AMD over Intel, granted the I5 2500k Wrata mentioned gets some pretty crazy times when OC)

Contrary to what Xuvial said the phenom ii X6 handles gaming fine, the I5 2500k is pretty much the best CPU on the market when it comes to OC phenom ii 1100T trades blows with it pretty well in a lot of aspects but when it comes to cost the 2500k takes the cake.

[gooseuk]

People in here have already said what i was gonna say. Intel sandybridge all the way. Only real change is the new z68 motherboards are out, have a look at those as they may have some new features you want.

And example if the new motherboard is here.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...=5&subcat=1990 Of course this is a uk site.

[llDemonll]

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K
MB: MSI P67A-GD53 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
GPU: MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III PE/OC Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity (Mail In
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-8GBRL
HDD: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5' Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
PSU: Antec EarthWatts EA650 650W Continuous Power ATX12V Ver.2.2 / EPS12V version 2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS CertifiedActive PFC 'compati
CPUHS: COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 'Heatpipe Direct Contact' Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler Compatible Intel Core i5 & Intel Core i7
Total Price: $940 (+30% ~ 668€)
Configure More

+ case
+ keyboard / mouse

[Angarin]

+ case
+ keyboard / mouse

Absolutely beautiful build gonna save it. Hopefully it stays updated

[llDemonll]

Absolutely beautiful build gonna save it. Hopefully it stays updated

parts and such don't too often, i tend to stick with the same ones over time, but prices get updated once or twice a day on weekdays

[Angarin]

Can someone link a monitor of at least 25" that has a resolution of at least 1920x1200 and reasonably priced. I saw a 27" with 2560x1440 and it was almost 700$ on newegg. Not what I call reasonably priced. Around 200$ is my range.

Does anyone also know of any comparison resolution screenshots for wow between 1920x1080 and 2560x1440 resolution. I play at 1440x900 I think now on wow and sometimes I find it just a bit small

[llDemonll]

go for 1080p then. any 27" you get for sub $200 will be shit most likely